


Weep Not For The Memories

by creatureofhobbit



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 04:19:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8696326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: Jeremy returns to Mystic Falls for Tyler's funeral.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eternal_moonie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternal_moonie/gifts).



Jeremy Gilbert had always sworn he would never come back here again, not after Mystic Falls’s answer to the Red Wedding and what Kai Parker had done to Elena. But this was different. This time it was for Tyler.

Alaric met him at the bus station, pulled him into a hug and told him it was good to see him again as he led him to the car where Stefan was waiting. “I know, and I should have visited more often,” Jeremy began, “should have spent more time with those girls of yours.”

“I understand the reasons why you didn’t. You’re here now, you can spend some time with them and get to know them while you’re here. They’re back at the house with the nanny right now.”

“Or as Caroline calls her, with a sarcastic edge to her voice, the hot nanny,” Stefan laughed as he helped Jeremy lift his luggage into the car. “Good to see you again.”

“You too. Where is Caroline, anyway?” Jeremy asked.

“She and Bonnie went off into Savannah to have a look at wedding dresses,” Stefan explained.

“She didn’t like anything at the bridal store in Mystic Falls?” Jeremy asked.

“It’s closed down now. Damon…might have eaten the owner.” 

Jeremy sighed and gritted his teeth, wanting to say so many things but not feeling he could say them in front of Stefan. But Stefan seemed to know what was going through his mind, for he turned to Jeremy and said “I understand why you don’t want to hear his name right now. I wouldn’t if it was me. And you’re not the only one. Caroline doesn’t want to know him either right now, and we’ve had arguments about it. And Bonnie’s struggling. But he’s my brother, and I can’t just walk away from that. I have to do whatever it takes to try and save him.” Jeremy thought he detected a note of warning in Stefan’s voice, something telling him not to go after Damon. Everyone knew now that Jeremy hadn’t really gone to art school, but that he and Tyler had been travelling the US hunting vampires, and Jeremy knew that Stefan didn’t want him adding Damon to his tally.

Jeremy nodded. “I understand.”

Alaric, sensing the tension, immediately asked “Is Matt on his way over?”

“I guess so.” Jeremy replied. “Before Tyler died, I hadn’t heard from him in a long time. I think the last time I spoke to him was somewhere around the time Penny died. I did try to call him to tell him I was on my way, but he didn’t pick up and didn’t reply to my message.” He could have said a lot more, about having to find out that Tyler had died via a call from Matt, when Tyler had told him not to accompany him, but he wouldn’t do that now. Maybe later if he got some time alone with Ric. Matt had said that he’d talk to him privately when they met up in Mystic Falls and he would explain everything. There was still a part of Jeremy that was kind of pissed at Tyler, even though he knew Tyler had been trying to protect him from…something. But he didn’t need protecting. It was like the time all those years ago when Elena hadn’t wanted Jeremy to know about vampires, and she’d made Damon compel him so he’d believe Vicki just left town….Damon again, that was someone else Damon had taken from him.

“I think being in Mystic Falls again is as hard for him as it is for you,” Alaric replied, noticing just as Jeremy did that they had just turned into the street where Jeremy used to live. Memories flashed before his eyes: Jeremy chasing Elena around the garden, the time he got in the way of a water bomb Bonnie had meant for Caroline, Matt teaching him how to play football and Tyler coming over and deciding the game would work better if Jeremy WAS the football. Who would ever have predicted back them that Jeremy and Tyler would have ended up together? Not him, that was for sure. So many memories; his time working at the Grill beside Matt, the time he’d dated Vicki, it all rushed over him as Alaric pulled into the driveway of the house that had been Caroline’s childhood home and was now his.

Selene the nanny opened the door, one twin clinging on to each leg, and Jeremy could see why Caroline referred to her as “the hot nanny” and didn’t like her. “They’ve been really good all day,” she began, as Alaric introduced her and the girls to Jeremy. Jeremy was about to say something, but then heard the sound of Caroline and Bonnie arriving, Caroline asking Bonnie to put the dress away before Stefan saw it, then running into the room, flinging her arms around Jeremy and squealing in his ear. She grabbed him by the shoulders, told him he simply had to stick around for her wedding, and if he was leaving, then he had to come back for it.

“Do it, Jeremy,” Bonnie said as she came back into the room. “You know she’s already had the table plans drawn up since about half an hour after Stefan proposed and your name was already down there.”

Jeremy flinched; knowing Caroline, that was probably true, and she’d probably already allocated a space for him and Tyler together. But he didn’t want to bring that up in front of the nanny and the twins, so he just laughed along and said “Good to see you, Bonnie.”

Caroline whispered something to Stefan and the two of them left the room, followed by Alaric, leaving Jeremy and Bonnie alone.

“So, uh, been a long time,” Bonnie began.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back when you first arrived back here,” Jeremy replied. “And for not talking to you properly about it.”

“I don’t think the time right after Ric’s wedding and what happened to Elena was exactly the moment to have that conversation,” Bonnie shook her head. “But it’s okay. I understand why you didn’t come back. Getting the hell out of here was the right decision for you.”

“So, how long did it take Ric to fess up that I hadn’t really gone to art school?” Jeremy asked. 

“About five minutes after you left town again,” Bonnie smiled. “But we all understood. I think Elena would have too. But I have to say, there’s a part of me that’s glad she isn’t here right now. I wouldn’t have wanted her to see what Damon’s become. That fighting that Stefan mentioned he and Caroline had had over it, it’s happened with me and Enzo too. Once I got Enzo to turn his humanity back on, he was all for trying to save Damon again, which I can sort of understand, because they were friends for so long, and if anyone can understand what happened to Damon, it’s Enzo. But the history Damon has with Enzo? Tyler was my childhood friend, I’ve known him all my life, and Damon just killed him for no reason when Tyler was trying to help him. I can’t get past that any more than Caroline can. I’ve washed my hands of Damon. Enzo is trying to understand where I’m coming from, but we’ve still fought over it. Sorry, maybe you’re not the person I should be talking to about this.”

“No, it’s fine.” Jeremy replied. “We were friends our whole lives too, you can talk to me about anything. I was never exactly friends with Enzo before, but from what I can tell, you seem to be good together.” Actually, he’d found it weird when Ric first told him about it, but he’d got used to the idea, and besides, he was with Tyler by then.

“We’ll get past it, I think,” Bonnie went on, “but it’s not easy. Speaking of Elena…”

“She’s safe.” Jeremy told her. “Tyler shared the location of the coffin with me, and I’m going to give it to Ric, so that one more person has it in case…anything happens. But I will make sure Damon never knows where she is. You never have to worry about that.” Just then his phone went off. “Matt, finally come back to me. Gotta go catch up with him.”

“Jeremy?” Bonnie said as Jeremy turned to go. “Take care of yourself. I’m here if you need me.”

 

“Hello, Baby Gilbert.”

It was the moment Jeremy had been dreading since he arrived back. He turned around to see Damon behind him, smirk on his face.

“What’s the matter, not got anything to say to an old friend?”

“Actually, I do have something to ask you. Was he right?”

Damon frowned. “What?”

“Tyler. Is his face the last one you see when you close your eyes every night? Like he said he would be?”

Damon smirked. “Actually, Dakota Johnson is. You know the actress from Fifty Shades of Grey? Been reading it. Fascinating book. Thought I’d check out the movie.”

“Because he’s the last face I see when I close my eyes,” Jeremy interrupted this ridiculous remark. “He was the person I used to sleep beside every night and wake up to every morning, and I loved that. And now I still see his face last thing at night and first thing in the morning, but he’s never going to be there again. And you’re the one who took him away from me. He gave you a chance to walk away, to be the Damon that Elena always believed you were. And you couldn’t take it. I don’t know why Stefan’s still fighting for you. You’re just the dick I always knew you were. And you don’t even have anything to say for yourself?”

“Applesauce penguin, Baby Gilbert. It’s all I can say for myself.”

“What the hell does that even mean? You know what? Don’t bother, if all you’re gonna say is something stupid anyway. But just know that the only reason you’re still walking around right now is because even though all of us apart from Stefan and Enzo have given up on you, Elena would be still trying to save you right now. And I can’t do that. But I’m keeping her alive for her right now, not you.”

 

He had been here too many times throughout his life; for his parents, when he had been in too much shock to remember much of the service at all apart from Jenna breaking down over the eulogy and Elena staring in front of her, still as a stone, barely able to look at anyone. Then there had been Vicki Donovan, where Mayor Lockwood had given some speech about Mystic Falls losing one of their own and Tyler had sat behind him muttering “bullshit” because he knew full well that his father had never liked Vicki, and admitting to Jeremy long afterwards that he’d wondered if he should even be there himself after the way their relationship had ended. Then there had been the secret memorial he, Elena and their friends had held for Jenna and for Uncle John, who Jeremy had never really liked that much in life but who had come good at the last in sacrificing his life for Elena’s. He’d missed Elizabeth Forbes’s, having felt unable to return to Mystic Falls so soon after having left it, but still, it was another funeral that should not have happened yet.

Now as Jeremy walked into the church carrying Tyler’s coffin along with Alaric, Stefan and Matt, he thought about how so many of the faces that had been by his side at so many of the other services were no longer there. Some idiot behind him had made some comment about Tyler being the last member of the Lockwood family, and he thought about them too: Mayor Robert, who may have been a dick but didn’t deserve the death he got in the fire, Carol, killed by Klaus at the Christmas party, and Mason, taken from Tyler at the moment he needed him most, and that was on Damon too.

He’d thought long and hard about the speech he was going to give for Tyler, ripped up who knew how many drafts, called Matt and compared notes to make sure they hadn’t used the same anecdotes in their speeches, before the version he’d eventually finished at 5am that morning. He looked out at the mourners, Enzo looking distinctly uncomfortable beside Bonnie, Caroline struggling to hold it together, Stefan not seeming to know quite how to react, Alaric giving him an encouraging smile.

Matt came to stand beside Jeremy as they gave their speeches together, talked about Tyler’s talent at art and on the football field, about how they’d grown up with him their whole lives and knew that he wasn’t perfect, but that they’d always had a lot of fun with him, that he’d helped Jeremy through losing Elena, had tried to help Matt through losing Penny if only Matt had let him, but Tyler had never given up.

As he looked out at the mourners, Jeremy vowed that one day, he would do whatever it took to bring down Damon Salvatore, and those sirens that Matt had now filled him in about, and he’d do it for Tyler.


End file.
